Christmas is one of the busy times of the year for every high street or shopping district. All of the people shopping around for presents for friends and family can be the perfect clientele to attract to your restaurant, café, shop or pub. The increased footfall around the festive period presents a great opportunity to advertise your business and draw in some extra customers.

Although a lot of advertisement nowadays is digital, sometimes the traditional ways of promotion can be just as, if not even more efficient. One of the traditional ways to advertise your business to potential clients is by using posters and signs. A great strategy, if your business is located in a busy place such as a high street, shopping centre or retail park, is to use a pavement sign in front of it.

In this post, we’ll talk about the different types of pavement signs and their advantages as well as why you should consider using pavement signs to advertise your business during the busy Christmas period.

What Are Pavement Signs

Pavement signs as the name suggests are signs which go on the pavement in front of your coffee shop, restaurant, retail shop or pub to promote your business to people walking past on the street. Also commonly known as sandwich boards, these signs can be made from various materials including aluminium, metal or wood.

There are many varieties of pavement signs. Some of them have replaceable poster holders with either a magnetic or snap frame design. Some of them are suitable for outdoor use, while others are for indoors. Whatever your business is you can be sure you can find a pavement sign to meet your needs.

Types of Pavement Signs

As we’ve already mentioned there are various different pavement signs to suit all your advertising needs. The most common types of pavement boards include:

• A-board Signs

These are the classic pavement signs. Strong, durable and sturdy, A-Board signs are most commonly seen in front of coffee shops or pubs as chalkboard signs or boards with printed posters inside to advertise a daily menu, special lunch deals or offers.

• Booster Signs

Booster pavement signs are similar to the previous type but they’re usually a bit bigger and feature a second, smaller sign on top which can be used as a title frame to draw attention.

• Forecourt Signs

This type of pavement sign is designed to be heavier to withstand wind and ensure the sign stays up at all times. Forecourt signs commonly have a heavy plastic base to support bigger sized posters and be noticeable even from afar. They are used mostly in large open outdoor areas such as in front of garages, car parks or bigger shops.

• Flexible Pavement Signs

Made using a flexible printed panel that is wedged into a solid base, flexible pavement signs can be spotted outside of shops or restaurants. They often feature bright and lively prints to attract the attention of passers-by.

• Swing Board Signs

These pavement signs are made with a hanging, swinging metal display sign inside of an outer frame. They have less wind resistance than other types but they’re just as attention-grabbing as the ones listed previously. Swinging pavement signs are most often used in shopping centres, retail parks or in front of restaurants and pubs.

Advantages of Using Pavement Signs

Pavement signs are one of the oldest methods of advertisement. Extremely simple and yet very effective. In fact, they’re one of the most effective methods of making your business known to locals and passers-by. It’s a tested method that works efficiently every time to drive the number of customers who enter your establishment, whether it’s a pub or a retail store. Some of the greatest advantages of using pavement signs are:

• They’re double-sided which means you can attract passers-by from either direction.
• Pavement signs are secure and durable, meaning you won’t have to worry about your sign being damaged, either because of the weather or vandalism.
• They’re versatile. You can use a pavement sign to advertise virtually anything, from a special daily menu item to special offers, sales or new products.
• And finally, they are completely customisable which makes it easy to brand them specifically to your business with logos or contact details when necessary.

Why Use Pavement Signs to Attract Christmas Shoppers

The Christmas period is one of the busiest times of the year for any business. Many people go out and about looking for gifts to buy so the footfall in cities is much higher than usual. If your business is in a central location on average there would be thousands of people walking past – that’s thousands of potential customers that could walk into your shop, restaurant or café. This is why you want to make your business as noticeable as possible.

Pavement signs are usually placed in the way of the footfall so people are more likely to stop and look at them or just read them as they walk past, which means they’re more likely to enter your business. If you run a coffee shop for example and you place a sign in front of it to advertise your delicious seasonal drinks menu, people tired from Christmas shopping might read it and wander inside to grab a refreshment before continuing with their errands. The same thing applies to shops, restaurants or any other establishment.

Whatever your business is, it could greatly benefit from using signs to advertise current offers and draw in passers-by that are out and about doing their Christmas shopping.